Robert Genn was born in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1936. He
attended Victoria College, the University of British Columbia, and
The Art Centre School in Los Angeles, California.

One of Canada's most accomplished painters, he gained
recognition on an international scale for his genre subjects on
Canada's West Coast. He painted in most parts of Canada and in
the United States, South America, Europe and the Orient.

Strongly influenced by the Group of Seven, Genn carried on the
tradition of strong design, fresh painterly techniques, and the
reduction of grand themes to small panels. Genn's autobiographical
book "In Praise of Painting", has been well accepted as a rare and
insightful statement of an artist's early progress as a Canadian
painter.

Genn obtained his material on extensive trips. He backpacked both the Chilkoot and the arduous West Coast Trail in
B.C.

In 1995, he walked the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail in central
France, a journey of over 100 miles, painting the same scenes that
Stevenson had portrayed in 1878. On another journey requiring six
separate trips, Genn retraced the steps of Henry Bartlett, an
English adventurer,artist and topographer, who travelled from
Halifax to Niagara Falls via the St. Lawrence River 1839, painting
and sketching en route. Genn's quest was to revisit the locations
and recreate the scenes as they currently exist. He was
accompanied by historian Thomas Fleming of Vancouver, who prepared
the itinerary with the help of regional museums.

His dedication and perseverance sustained him through the
fluctuations of the art market of the last five decades, and he
has passed the most crucial test of the artist, the test of
time.